Weeks

I am currently measuring my time in weeks. It's been two weeks since I gave birth to Inara May. Sean went back to work today and I am on my own for a week until my mom arrives to help out for two weeks. I've been thinking back on the week before Inara came and all that took place during that time. The anticipation, emotion, excitement, and intensity of it all. The fact that my mom was visiting for a week and Inara came while she was here. In two more weeks Inara will be a month old and I will wonder where the time went.
This morning I was looking through the pictures that my friend Nina took during my labor and delivery, remembering all the details of the night/morning of Inara's birth and I thought it was appropriate to post some of them with this blog.

The Birth of Inara May

On Thursday, May 2nd I had my 38 week check up with my Midwife. I had been having some pretty strong and fairly consistent contractions since Friday, April 26th, as well as some pinching in my cervical area. She proceeded with the appointment as usual, and when we were finished with all of that, she asked me to tell her about the contractions I had been feeling and how often I was getting them. After I explained everything to her she asked if I wanted her to check my cervix to see how far I was dilated, I was very curious to see if all the action I was getting was doing anything, so I said yes. She estimated that I was probably only going to be 4 or 5 cm and I was thinking that sounded pretty accurate. As I am on the table and she is checking me, she looks at me and the below conversation is what followed:
Midwife: "You are a wild woman aren't you?"
Me: "What does that mean?"
Midwife: "You are at an 8"
Me: "Are you joking?"
Midwife: shakes her head "Let me just check again. Ok, now I'm going to triple check. Yeah, you are an 8".
I was completely shocked and amazed. I looked at Sean and he just looked back and forth between me and my Midwife. Then, we all discussed what my options were, and made a decision based on those.
We decided that we would not go home that night, but Sean would go home to get all our stuff and I would go spend some time walking around to keep the contractions coming. My mom just happend to be in town visiting that week so she, Declan and I went to the mall, and walked around for about an hour. Then we met Sean for dinner, after which my mom took Declan home and Sean and I went to a park for another walk, then back to the Birth Center. Sean's mom came to our house to wach Declan so that my mom could join us at the center and be there for the birth of Baby #2; our dear friend Nina followed shortly after as she would be our doula for the delivery.
Around 10pm things were't slowing down, but they weren't progressing either, so my Midwife came into the room and suggested some options that we could procede with. She left Sean and I to make the ultimate decision, and after MUCH thinking, praying and discussing, we felt that having my Midwife break my water was the best option. So, around 11pm my waters were broken, and after a few minutes I began experiencing very strong, very frequent contractions. After about a half hour, my Midwife came in and said that we should get me in the tub since things were progressing so fast. Then, after about a half hour in the water I felt the urge to push. I started pushing around 12am and 14 minutes later, our baby girl was born!
Unfortunately, she had one of her arms up next to her head, so it made it even more difficult to push her out, and I lost a lot of blood and had to be given an IV of fluids, and be stitched afterwards. But all in all it was an amazing, unforgettable experience that I would not trade for the world!